The 18th annual Climate Change summit began in Doha Qatar today. Delegates from over 200 nations will be looking to sign nations up to the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. The first commitment period runs out December 31st. Kyoto binds 40 of the richest nations to strict greenhouse gas emission targets, China and the US never signed up to Kyoto.
Delegates are also hoping to reach a draft plan for a new global climate deal to be brought into effect in 2020.
At the end of the week negotiators will be joined by cabinet ministers from over 100 nations. Ministers will be under pressure to sign up to stricter pre-2020 greenhouse gas targets for richer nations, as well as providing greater funding to poorer nations.
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Doha: a strange place to host a climate-change conference
Holding a climate-change conference in Qatar, the country with the world’s highest per capita carbon emissions, might seem like a joke, but the UN isn’t renowned for its sense of humour. This year’s fraught negotiations on a replacement for the Kyoto protocol are taking place in Doha, the Qatari capital, where they are fuelled by some of the most inefficient, profligate, carbon-spewing power generation in the world.
Qatar makes most of its money – GDP is $170bn (£106bn) a year – from selling oil and gas. It has the world’s third -biggest natural gas reserves and is the top supplier of liquefied natural gas, according to the US government’s Energy Information Administration.
As delegates shiver in the Arctic (and Arctic-melting) air-conditioning, the Qatari government is raking in $230m every day from exporting fossil fuels. Despite the huge potential for solar power, there are no renewables to speak of.
On top of that, Qataris get all their electricity, water and even phone lines free, and the price of these for expats (the majority of the 2 million inhabitants) is state-subsidised. They have no concept of “fuel poverty”. Or any kind of poverty – the average income is $90,000 (£56,000) a year, the highest in the world. With those prices, everyone uses energy as much as they can, all of the time. Doha’s skyscrapers, vast shopping malls, its lavish apartments and swanky hotels are among the most energy-inefficient in the world. Each Qatari is responsible for nearly 50 tonnes of carbon emissions a year. That compares with 17 for the US, 1.4 for India and 0.1 for Uganda. Meanwhile, scientists have warned that on current form, the world will be in for between 4C and 6C of warming.
Campaigners who have travelled to Doha to protest against governments’ inaction on global warming, and the snail’s pace of the negotiations, have no choice but to use Qatar’s climate-killing energy. Even pouring a glass of water involves hurting a polar bear – the water in this desert country comes from desalination plants, and making seawater drinkable is one of the most energy-intensive processes. But water it is, if you want a drink – alcohol is banned, and thirsty delegates were searched at the airport to make sure they didn’t smuggle any in.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/shortcuts/2012/nov/28/doha-strange-place-climate-change-conference
Total con! All this climate change stuff is a set up. Scientifically we have always went through cycles. But spiritually I reckon it’s because of all those rituals done by Tibetan Buddhists.
Use to be a Buddhist, was heavily into it for years, studying the texts etc. I saw the rituals they done to evoke water spirits to change the weather.
They want the Dalai Lama back into Tibet to control the head waters over Asia. The Dalai Lama has a “prophet” figure and he spoken “words” about this. If he gets in over Tibet then he can evoke his demons into the waters, that flow to nearly 50% of the world’s population.